Nehemiah 10:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Here are the people who sealed the covenant. First of all Nehemiah, the Tirshitha, that is, the governor of Judah and Jerusalem, and then the great long list of names. How seriously it was taken; how official it became. Verse 28 tells us that in addition to those named, there were many others who entered into this covenant together with their wives and sons and daughters. This was to be a covenant for the whole family. They understood what it meant and the commitment they were making and every one of them did it with knowledge because their hearts were in it. They saw that there was nothing better they could do with their lives than to dedicate them to the service of the Lord as a covenant undertaking.‘And all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God.’ This was a covenant which involved separating from those who were all around them. ‘Be not deceived:’ says the apostle, ‘evil communications corrupt good manners’ (1 Corinthians 15:33). God’s people have always needed to separate themselves from the world. For the typical people of God this was a physical separation; for the church living in the world, it cannot be that, for we are not called to exit the world. It is rather a separation from their sins, from their lifestyle, their amusements, their places of entertainment, their opinions and attitudes.They entered into this covenant with understanding. They calculated ahead of time what it was going to cost them, and they made sure they were willing to bear that cost. No one should embark on the life of discipleship to Christ without understanding. It is not without cost to do so, but the true Christian has weighed up what is involved, and he is willing to sell all to obtain the pearl of great price. The cynic say that the Christian is exercising blind faith, but on the contrary, he has seen that to continue as a worldling is to lose all.